It would appear that they do more than just collect the information about a suspect's phone - they appear to be collecting information on ANY phone that happens to be in the area monitored.

I have to wonder if it then causes connections to be dropped - if, for example, I was calling home, and just by bad luck the FBI turns on their monitor in my general direction - does my cell phone drop the connection? If so, you know it is just a matter of time before a 911 call gets accidentally blown away.

And, if it is tricking the cell phone to direct its traffic to it instead of the actual tower, then it potentially could be collecting more than just location information if the phone was in the middle of transmitting either a conversation or network data. That seems more like wiretapping, and less like collecting location emissions from the phone.

4:55 pm September 22, 2011

Anonymous wrote:

My curiosity was raised as to just what is so sensitive and/or critical that that the logs and details of "Stingray" use are deleted and purged as matter of official routine policy. What exactly are they hiding that's worth the risk of such an obviously non-standard legal policy? A little digging with Google reveals a bit more about the Harris suite of cellular surveillance tools.

Surprisingly these tools include networked, concealable backpack units, handheld discrete controllers, and the ability to quickly and discretely locate and track multiple targets, on foot, in crowds, from moving vehicles, etc., and to plot and graph all target information in real-time on central and remote graphical displays. The "Stingray" is part of a larger suite of tools, including the "Kingfish", "Triggerfish", "Starfish", "Loggerhead", and the "Amberjack" phased-array antenna. A central design feature is that these tools are designed to be small, portable, concealable, interconnected, remote controlled, networked, and battery operated.

I suspect that the real risk of exposure here is just how much data can be surreptitiously collected, on how many people at once, and with what relative ease. All without a warrant, or even acknowledgement from any public authority. It looks as if Law Enforcement agencies typically deploy cellphone tracking tools like Stingray using much of the surveillance suite together, and the logs would reveal just how broad a brush is used, even for just a "simple" geo-location exercise.

Interestingly, combining the use (as designed) of Stingray, Triggerfish, Starfish, etc, one could deploy a surveillance team of up to 6 guys into a neighborhood (or a protest crowd), each guy carrying a small backpack with a networked Stingray and phased-array antenna, and have a central control unit collect live information on ALL phones being used (or just turned on) in the entire area, and then target, locate, and track multiple targets as they move about. Combined with other Intel sources, like all text and data messages being sent, this is pretty powerful real-time surveillance stuff that can arguably give a civil liberties attorney a field-day.

I'd guess that's what they're ultimately hiding.

Note: I didn't see any specific product data publicly available online, but I also gather that Harris quietly makes a something-Fish module that nicely integrates with the rest of the cellphone surveillance suite that connects to a real cell-tower and passes all calls and data on through, as if the Harris gear wasn't in the middle at all. This pass-through capability allows continuous undetected monitoring of all cellular users in the area, and is limited by the capacity of the Harris gear. They do mention that you can easily connect multiple units together to add heavy-use capacity, without giving any details. Of course, this man-in-the-middle technique would allow monitoring not only of devices, but also the traffic, content, and provide for historical collection and pattern analysis.

Such broad capabilities are surely intended for legitimate National Security use, but a local LEO investigating a simple crime using these same surveillance tools might get the full data collection by default anyways (potentially including many different innocent cellphone users). Better just to delete all the data logs, and hope no one notices.

4:56 pm September 22, 2011

Slim Pickins wrote:

The device mimics a cellphone tower and gets the phone to connect to it.

Is this legal for a regular citizen to do? Can I build a device and drive down the street and do a phone survey?

I am thinking that marketing companies would pay for this service(eg people that shop at this store later drink at this bar and sleep at this house).

Not to mention suspicious spouses.:-)

6:51 pm September 22, 2011

JamaicaJoe wrote:

It seems to me that this device is illegal in that it must transmit on frequencies which are licensed to the cellular provider. In effect it is a jammer when it spoofs the subscriber unit to attach to it as it would a valid base station.

6:54 pm September 22, 2011

JamaicaJoe wrote:

Anonymous; you are quite on target about the potential abuse of this equipment.

9:53 pm September 22, 2011

Fishy wrote:

This seems like it might be an unconstitutional search to me. Police are not permitted to search any place where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy without a warrant or an exception. Police are also not permitted to use technology that is not widely used and not commercially available to perceive things that normal human faculties cannot perceive.

Here it is unquestionable that a person has an expectation of privacy inside the walls of their own home and probably in regards to the information contained on their cell phone, like hardware numbers, etc. I am not sure, but I would bet these Stingray devices are not widely used or commercially available. I don't see any mention of a warrant or other exception either. Since a human can't perceive the hardware number of a phone without enhancing their senses and certainly can't penetrate the walls of a home to do so, it looks like penetrating the walls of a home or getting data off of the phone with such a device would thus be unconstitutional, unless there is some kind of exception that can justify its use.

12:45 pm September 23, 2011

JM wrote:

No different than any other search warrant or surveillance OK'd by a judge. Just a different technology. You can illegally spy on someone, wiretap their phone,.etc. and that violates their privacy. If a law enforcement official has reason to beliive you are engaging in an illegal activity and has enough evidence to convnice a judge, then the technology used becomes a moot point. I'm all for giving the authorities whatever they need to prevent further crimes from happening.

2:06 pm September 24, 2011

Liann wrote:

Cellphones have no Constitutional rights. The device tracks a cellphone, no matter who is carrying it around at any particular moment. Nobody is claiming that the device can distinguish who is possessing the cellphone at any instant. There are no Constitutional rights for cellphones -- what do you think they are, legal-fictions created by law and called corporations? This bestowing of rights on inanimate objects and creations has to stop!

4:48 pm September 24, 2011

Anon wrote:

Liann, your response barely deserves a response but please post your address, I"d be glad to stop by and relieve you of your house, clothes, car, phone and any other property since they are inanimate objects with no rights. Property rights, privacy and many other rights attach to objects through you.

4:59 pm September 24, 2011

Engineer wrote:

These devices don't just ping. By the very fact that they are imitating a cell tower, a phone will connect to this fake tower. This is done all the time by hackers and was well publicized at Def Con this year and years past. If your phone connects to the fake tower all the traffic on it is going through your tower before connecting to others on the way to the switch. Phones are made to connect to the best signal which is usually the closest one. The encryption on phones is weak and widely crackable, in addition, all phones drop to unencrypted communication if they can't connect on 3G systems. And all you need to do for that, is to boost a signal so no phone in the area connects via 3G.
They are listening to the context of the conversations as well as taking in locations. That is the reason its all being deleted before a judge reviews it.

4:54 am September 25, 2011

HISTORIAN wrote:

ENGINEER: People want to now:is there a way that they can use a persons airtime + internet data bundles?

1:40 am November 16, 2011

Anonymous wrote:

I think it's just a matter of time before they are able to pin point a phones location. I guess if you are not doing anything wrong then you don't have anything to worry about.

Fake towers to record bank accound passwords from my Tablet and smart phone. Maybe record the transmitted encryption and decrypt later and access later.
This stuff has ABUSE written all over it. The under world gangs will have it next if not already!

12:20 pm February 10, 2012

Clarence wrote:

Phones are made to connect to the best signal which is usually the closest one. The encryption on phones is weak and widely crackable, in addition, all phones drop to unencrypted communication if they can’t connect on 3G systems. http://www.weddings101.org/

2:14 pm March 12, 2012

jeerkgge wrote:

As a lot as we love the "Ocean's" dream team that contains Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and needless to say Don Cheadle, the 47-year-old actor himself says the franchise has likely reached its finish.

"I believe that was place to bed," Cheadle tells us in the possibility of an additional "Ocean's" movie. "And I assume if we do bring it back, you understand, we must do it in reverse. We should do 'Ocean's 9' subsequent, and then eight, [and then] seven, and just knock off a character as we go down till there`s just two left. It should be a battle towards the death." We'd pay to determine that, but we're not holding our breath for a release date. And, however for Effortless Rawlins fans, Cheadle's not going to portray Mouse on the modest screen. (Final fall, there was a report that NBC was working on adapting the Walter Mosley character Easy Rawlins for television).

"Yeah, that was something that came up potentially to complete, but it's considering that kind of gone away," Cheadle says. "But I adore that character. I don't realize that I would want to revisit him, Iove kind of been there, done that, but I truly dug undertaking that. I had a good encounter with him." But it is possible to catch Cheadle on Showtime's "House of Lies," in which he plays the morally bankrupt consultant Marty Kaan.

"He's a very complicated cat, which is fascinating to play. He's do what he has to do to obtain the job completed. He's not above lying, cheating, stealing, throwing a buddy beneath the bus...whatever it takes," Cheadle says. "I believe that the show really deftly goes to places which are hilarious, and funny, and sometimes borderline slapstick. And they're able to get quite severe simultaneously, and cover that spectrum pretty deftly in 30 minutes. That's fairly amazing truly." "House of Lies," which has been picked up for a second season, airs Sundays on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET.

8:17 pm April 4, 2012

Kacey Zaya wrote:

This is my 3rd year using Studio Tax. I do my wife's and my taxes with it including our small unincorporated business and it works like a charm. Highly recommended. Reply

2:10 am April 15, 2012

Alouetta wrote:

If your phone connects to the fake tower all the traffic on it is going through your tower before connecting to others on the way to the switch. Phones are made to connect to the best signal which is usually the closest one. The encryption on phones is weak and widely crackable, in addition, all phones drop to unencrypted communication if they can’t connect on 3G systems. http://www.medicaldebtsconsolidation.com/

I strongly believe Dupage County Illinios is using this device or some form of hack to collect incriminating information. Even as I type this statement my andriod's swype function acts as if it has a virus within it. Its never acted this way untill I was just arrested. It started the day I posted bond. I've for paid both my phone and my freedom, but yet they still invade my privacy and forth ammendment.

Add a Comment

Error message

Name

We welcome thoughtful comments from readers. Please comply with our guidelines. Our blogs do not require the use of your real name.